Senate GOP Takes Issue With Special Master’s LI Lines

The Senate Majority has delivered their response to the lines drawn by a Special Master, raising concerns about Long Island’s new lines, Republican Bob Turner’s new district, the newly proposed Staten Island district, the district drawn for Rep. Chris Gibson, and a small concern about the Western New York seats.

Long Island is where the majority of their concern is. In the response, they argue that the special master failed to “respect the cores of
current districts and the communities of interest that have formed around them” arguing that traditionally the districts ran North South, but now the special master has created a South Shore and North Shore district. Here’s an excerpt:

This change dramatically realigns the existing districts without any apparent basis in traditional redistricting principles: whereas the Senate Majority Plan maintains 89.8% of the core of Rep. Israel’s existing district and 82.9% of the core of Rep. King’s existing district, see Ex B, the Proposed Plan would preserve only 38.8% and 47.3%, respectively, of these districts.

They add that they would like to see Smithtown entirely in District 1, and not divided between the proposed 1st and 3rd districts.

They also argue that the special master needlessly paired Rep. Bob Turner in the same district as Rep. Meeks.

They write, “the Proposed Plan fails to respect communities of interest by dividing among a total of four districts (districts 5, 8, 9, and 10) traditional Russian and Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and traditional communities of interest in Far Rockaway Peninsula, Howard Beach, and Ozone Park, which also include substantial Jewish populations. These are communities that were previously unified and should remain unified in Rep. Turner’s district. In this respect, too, the Proposed Plan fails to respect political subdivisions by needlessly having district 5 cross into Nassau County.”

There are a few other arguments they make. They don’t believe Coney Island should be removed from the current Staten Island district. Correction. Senate Republicans argue that a housing project near Coney Island should be moved from the current Staten Island district to the proposed 8th District, and traditional communities in Midwood should be put back in the Staten Island seat.

Upstate, they take issue with Rep. Chris Gibson’s new district saying it “omits communities in the Hudson Valley that were traditionally part of this district, including the counties of Warren, Washington, and Saratoga.” They also argue that the counties of Livingston and Wyoming should not be split up, as they are in the proposed 23rd and 27th Districts.